People visit the booth of Toyota at the Automobile Exhibition Area during the seventh China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai.
Toyota Motor Corporation has finalised a binding agreement to become a full, equal shareholder in cellcentric, the hydrogen fuel-cell company jointly owned by the Volvo Group and Daimler Truck AG. The deal, announced on 27 July, 2026, formalises a partnership first floated in a non-binding memorandum of understanding signed in Tokyo at the end of March. Once the transaction closes, ownership of cellcentric will be split evenly three ways between Toyota, Volvo and Daimler Truck.
The move is notable because it brings together three of the world's largest commercial and passenger vehicle manufacturers under one roof for a technology that none of them has yet managed to commercialise at scale on its own. Volvo and Daimler Truck originally formed cellcentric in 2021, pooling decades of prior fuel-cell research from both companies into a single dedicated venture. Toyota, meanwhile, has pursued hydrogen power for over two decades through its own Mirai passenger vehicle programme and related fuel-cell systems business.
Rather than compete on parallel tracks, the three companies say they will now pool that expertise. Toyota is expected to contribute engineering know-how built up through its long-running hydrogen programme, while cellcentric brings industrial scale and a fuel-cell platform already built specifically for heavy-duty trucking. According to statements from the companies, the partners intend to jointly manage development of the fuel cell's core "unit cells" as well as the surrounding architecture and control systems, with the goal of producing a more competitive product than any one company could build alone.
